With the advent of SAP NetWeaver Process Orchestration (SAP NetWeaver PO) it is possible to build stateful integration-centric processes solely based on Java technology. However, users who worked with the SAP NetWeaver Process Integration double-stack version (ABAP/Java) before cannot automatically migrate their existing ccBPM-based process models to SAP NetWeaver PO. Instead they have to remodel their processes to benefit from the features offered by SAP NetWeaver PO. Learn what to consider in order to bring existing ccBPM processes to the new environment. Some new techniques will help you in your own projects.

Key Concept

Modeling of loops using BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) can significantly be simplified by making use of the multiple instance marker for activities and subprocesses. However, be aware of the consequences during runtime.

SAP NetWeaver Process Orchestration 7.31 (SAP NetWeaver PO) is SAP’s strategic future platform for all kinds of processes. It doesn’t matter whether you want to model human-centric or integration-centric processes; SAP NetWeaver PO is your one-stop shop to implement them. However, what do you do if you come from an SAP NetWeaver PI double-stack environment and you want to run the processes you have built before using ccBPM on SAP NetWeaver PO?

My previous article on this topic, “Bringing ccBPM-based Integration Processes to SAP NetWeaver PO: Why Automation Doesn’t Work” explained that a one-to-one translation of each individual ccBPM-process-shape to the new SAP NetWeaver Business Process Management environment (which is part of SAP NetWeaver PO and which is in the end responsible for executing stateful processes on the Java-stack) doesn’t make too much sense. The modeling languages being used by the different products (Business Process Execution Language [BPEL] in PI and Business Process Model and Notation [BPMN] in BPM) are conceptually too different to allow such an easy solution. I explained this by using an integration scenario which is shipped with every PI installation. It is a process for coordinating multiple flight bookings and is depicted in Figure 1.

Figure 1

ccBPM process for coordinating multiple flights

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Dr. Volker Stiehl

Prof. Dr. Volker Stiehl studied computer science at the Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. After 12 years as a developer and senior system architect at Siemens, he joined SAP in 2004. As chief product expert, Volker was responsible for the success of the products SAP Process Orchestration, SAP Process Integration, and SAP HANA Cloud Integration (now SAP HANA Cloud Platform, integration service). He left SAP in 2016 and accepted a position as professor at the Ingolstadt Technical University of Applied Sciences where he is currently teaching business information systems. In September 2011, Volker received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Technology Darmstadt. His thesis was on the systematic design and implementation of applications using BPMN. Volker is also the author of Process-Driven Applications with BPMN as well as the co-author of SAP HANA Cloud Integration and a regular speaker at various national and international conferences.